[Guille]

Willard Van Orman Quine was an eminent analytical philosopher of the 20th century. He was philosophy professor at Harvard University from 1956 to 2000, year in which he died.

Quine made four main contributions to philosophy. I will make a thread about each, as it is his week. What I want to discuss is:

Quine’s naturalism, a theory that based on two premises:

That it is possible to answer all substantive questions of knowledge and meaning using the methods and tools of the natural sciences,

The rejection that the notion that there should be a "first philosophy," a theoretical standpoint somehow prior to and capable of justifying science.

Do you agree with them or disagree?

I disagree with both. The first one does not accept the idea that for example “For what am I here?” is not possible to be answered by science. Indeed, science will tell you what your aim in life is in a biological sense, will tell you that your future is not determined yet in physics, and will tell you that you could die if you breathe pure Chlorine in chemistry. However, it cannot answer philosophical questions. The secnd one doesn’t see that science without philosophy can be nothing but measurements and quantities.